Inspired by VincentGeloso, here is a list of the 25 books in economic history published since 2000 which I have found most stimulating or provocative. Not the best, nor the most ‘correct’, nor the most balanced, but those things which influenced, stimulated, or provoked my own personal thinking.

You should take a look at Accidental India – A History of the Nation’s Passage through Crisis and Change (http://amzn.to/1A1OfJQ) published in 2012. The premise – every major transformation in its 70 years of Independence came in the wake of crises.
India, is already in the top five, has overtaken Britain in nominal terms. On PPP terms, says PWC, will be the second largest economy. How did the nation on the brink of penury come to represent the promise of prosperity?
Check it out

Understanding the listing is those most stimulating economic history books to your person still I (no economist am I) would squeeze in The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It.

“Lee & Feng, One Quarter of Humanity: Malthusian Mythology and Chinese Realities, 1700-2000” – I’m interested about your thoughts on this book and how it has effected your thinking, since you’ve also listed (and blogged about!) Clark’s neo-Malthusian A Farewell to Alms (I have read the latter but not the former).